Controversy over take-home pay is ‘not a big deal’, says Ní Riada

Sinn Féin presidential candidate Liadh Ní Riada has dismissed controversy over her take-home pay as an MEP as “not a big deal”.

Ms Ní Riada admitted on Tuesday night’s presidential debate on RTÉ that she does not live on the average industrial wage, as she had previously claimed.

Sinn Féin has traditionally maintained that its elected representatives take home the average industrial wage, with the balance of their earnings used to pay party and constituency expenses.

However, it emerged earlier this year that TD Dessie Ellis was being allowed to take home his entire Dáil salary and it was suspected other representatives enjoyed a similar exemption from the rule.

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In the debate, Ms Ní Riada clarified that her take-home pay was €60,000, out of which she takes home €47,000, with the balance going on constituency costs. She said she paid €40,000 in tax annually.

The monthly pre-tax salary of MEPs is €8,484, which is the equivalent of an annual gross salary of €101,808.

According to the Central Statistics Office, the average industrial wage is €744.08 a week, or €38,692 a year.

In July 2017, Ms Ní Riada told Hot Press magazine she thought Sinn Féin’s policy that members accept only the average industrial wage was “a good idea”.

“In order to be in touch with the reality of what it’s like to be an ordinary working class person in Ireland, you need to be living in the same circumstances. That means having an average industrial wage and trying to make it stretch.”

Asked if she was taking the average industrial wage, she replied: “I am indeed.”

Semantics

During the RTÉ debate, Ms Ní Riada said she was lucky to take home a good wage and she had a family to support. Before she became an MEP, she knew what it was like to struggle, she said.

Asked why she had told Hot Press something that was not true, she said it was “just semantics” and she should have clarified that the amount she quoted was after tax.

She also receives a €4,000 a month allowance which is used to operate two constituency offices and for other expenses.

Two years ago, she told Hot Press that “on huge wages you’re really removed from reality, you’re really removed from the struggle it is for people to educate their kids, to pay their mortgage, and all of that”.

During Tuesday’s debate, she said “even if you’re on a very, very big wage, it’s still difficult to make ends meet because the cost of living is so high”.